So how do we become more visible? It starts with branding.

Your brand is your identity. It is more than your logo. It’s how you represent yourselves online and in person, explains Brett.

Branding is more than our logo. It’s our font, our brand colours, it’s the way we appear when we walk in a room.  It’s the way we come across on social: the way we come across when we talk to someone when networking.

During the practical workshop we paired up and our partners gave an honest appraisal of our logos. Can we tell what the name of the business is? What do they do? How do you feel when you look at the logo, does it resonate with you? Can you tell who their target market is?

In explaining the font and colour scheme of Novus Marketing, Brett explained that his font, colours and logo resonates with his target market and those that don’t like his branding are probably not his target market anyway. Can people tell from your branding who your target market is?

Brett also encouraged us during the session not to be afraid if you think that your brand needs a makeover: he demonstrated how and why Facebook changed their logo as an illustration on what we as small business owners can learn from corporates.

Brett also referred to a company and in reviewing their website, he explained how it (poorly) represented their brand. Due to the poor representation of that brand, that company would be easily dismissed by others because, as Brett explained, we only have one chance to make a first impression.

When it comes to branding, Brett asked us to consider who our target market is. If you can also paint a picture of your idea customer, then you’ll be able to formulate your branding around that.

Branding is also important when it comes to selling. Sell an experience, not a product, Brett tells us. Branding is also what people say to you when you’re not in the room and if you sell an experience, people will come back for more.

People buy from people, Brett explains and so it is also important to grow your personal brand as well as your business brand. The next section covered was credibility and there are various ways in which we can increase our credibility, such as finding ways to associate our brand with other personal + business brands.

For the remainder of the workshop Brett did a quick dive into the world of Canva.com – a great website for non-designers to create great social media posts that should be an extension of our brand colours and fonts.

From animation to incorporating video, from creating presentations to different social media posts to suit all platforms, Brett gave a quick guideline on how we can create brand assets very quickly using Canva. The free platform is a great start for any business owner although we were given an insight into the paid platform too.

Thanks to Brett again for another incredible workshop and we look forward to bringing him back for future workshops. Thanks Brett! And thanks to our members and guests today!

By May King Tsang (Director)